The project analyzed and characterized the scientific arguments and territorial, cultural, institutional, and historical visions that have allowed the Tierra del Fuego-Patagonia region to become established as a global natural laboratory. Despite the rapid development and production of scientific knowledge in this area in recent decades, the process through which this part of the planet became a global point of reference for science had not been systematically studied.

The research asked what scientists have identified in the ecosystems of the southern regions that led them to consider these places as sites for comparison and for the legitimization of scientific hypotheses. It also examined how research in this field has contributed to the creation of specific forms of knowledge and to the consolidation of scientific disciplines over time, as well as how this territory has been represented within scientific communities.

The project proposed that the consolidation of Fuego-Patagonia as a global natural laboratory resulted from a long-term process in which scientific practices and perceptions interacted to promote the idea that the region’s ecosystems are exceptional, and that from them it is possible to observe and study the origins of both humanity and the planet, as well as their future.

At the same time, geopolitical interests driving scientific agendas have contributed to transforming the region into a network through which knowledge circulates globally.